I’m Done Asking for Sympathy, Lefty Friends

cc Nenad Stojkovic

I’m done trying to get your sympathy, thanks very much.

Like many liberal Jews, I’ve been concerned with the increasing antisemitism in progressive circles over the last 20 years. Of course liberals like me made common cause with progressives for two core reasons:

1. We thought we had a shared belief in progress, humanism and the idea that raising everyone’s standard of living and safety would result in better outcomes for individuals and society, and
2. As the descendents of survivors of the largest actual modern genocide, we were uniquely aware of the racism and violence that long infested conservative and right-wing circles.

Time and again in history we were willing to sacrifice ourselves and subsume our identities to our belief in a greater good. The modern liberal institutions of the US, from the ACLU to Planned Parenthood count Jews among their founders, leaders and major donors. From marches on Selma to Washington, gay rights and Black Lives Matter, Jewish liberalism has been a key funder in terms of labor and capital to the advancement of progress in society.

And our commitment to higher education as a core cultural value made us major allies to the rapaciously-growing American university system. Never mind that we had been excluded from the ivy leagues for over a…